4th May
The thought, and site, of tots playing on their parents’ iPhones always freaks me out… no matter how common and frequent an activity. Am I really that old?
It seems like just yesterday that I was given my first mobile phone (at University btw) which looked like a brick and had a pull-out aerial – a far cry from cool, colourful games that respond to a tap on a screen.
Madness.
Anyway, more to the point is a fun app for pre-schoolers. It’s called Bug Builder, and is a fun colouring activity whereby children choose a shape for their bug, decorate their shape then build their bug by tapping it. The bug shape begins to transform with each tap until it hatches and comes to life onscreen. Each new bug is completely different.
25th Apr
Hilary Jones – Doctor Hilary Jones that is; renowned media GP – has launched a new App for mums-to-be.
If you’re wondering about Dr Jones’ credentials (other than TV doctor), the man is a practising GP, has delivered many babies, has five children, has appeared on British TV for 21 years… and has a website.
The App aims to help mums find everything they need to know about pregnancy and their baby (or babies) sans medical jargon, which can be mighty confusing.
The App – for iPhone and iPad – gives exclusive access to 30 videos and scripts that address common concerns from conception through to delivery.
The vids cover five sections – early pregnancy, a week by week guide, complications, concerns, and the birth. Each is then subdivided into topics including conception, nutrition, smoking and drinking, your body week by week, ultrasound scans, coping with common problems, pre-eclampsia, and pain relief in labour.
Written by: Andrea Zanin
2nd Apr
Get your children high on literature with iF Poems; a poetry app for kids and for adults of any age.
iF Poems has 230 classic poems from Lear’s “The Owl And The Pussycat” to Belloc’s “Matilda Who Told Lies And Was Burned To Death” to Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”.
It is a carefully chosen selection of poems by poets including Eliot, W.H. Auden, Siegfried Sassoon, Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Rupert Brooke, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe and Dr Seuss… plus others.
Some of the poems are read by acclaimed actors Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy but there is also the option the app also offers the option for you to record yourself reading the poems – so your toddler can listen to you whenever, wherever.
Other features on the poetry app for kids include the ability to:
* email a poem and email your recording of a poem.
* tap on any word for a dictionary definition.
* save poems to a ‘Favourites’ page.
* search by title, author, first line or by any word.
* get a dictionary definition of any word.
The app can be searched by section – you can look for a ‘Funny poem’, a ‘War poem’ or a ‘poem for Bedtime’ – making it easy and fun to navigate. You can also search by age; poems have been separated the poems into three age groups: age 0-6, 7-12, and 13 and over.
Written by: Andrea Zanin
23rd Mar
Heard about MyAsthma? If not, it’s a programme, developed by pharmaceutical and healthcare giant GSK, that provides services, information and support that can help those with asthma to take control of their condition.
There is a MyAsthma website dedicated to the provision of: useful tips, practical advice and special monitoring tools to help both children and adults control and manage their asthma.
There is also a cool new app for asthma patients that has been launched to complement the website. The app has been designed for over-12s but in this day and age, you’ll probably find your six-year-old quite capable of understanding the app’s functionality.
Technology is a tool through which children can be encouraged to take responsibility for, and learn about, their asthma. MyAsthma’s app is both articulate and fun.
Presented in clear, straightforward language, the features of MyAsthma (the app for asthma patients) include:
* Local environment dashboard enabling you to check the potential asthma triggers of temperature, pressure, pollen and pollution levels where you are .
* The Asthma Control Test and monitoring chart, which let you record and review your progress.
* Personalised information notifications based specifically on your profile.
Written by: Andrea Zanin
12th Feb
A parent’s worst nightmare has got to be losing a child – whether it’s a small child being swallowed up by a busy crowd or not knowing where your ten-year-old has run off to. As the mum of a two-year-old toddler, who darts around like a maniac, I am always on alert – no matter where we are!
Keep Me Safe is a newly launched personal safety tracker, a Sat Nav app for kids. Using the latest GPS technology, parents can switch on the tracking facility on the app and place the phone in their child’s rucksack or coat pocket when they are walking to school, on an organised trip or are out playing with their friends, allowing them to follow their child’s route.
The Sat Nav app for kids lets children alert their parents when they feel uncomfortable or in trouble via an alert button that sends out a text message with their location (great for teens!). It also sends a message to let parents know when children have safely arrived at their destination.
Most of us have not yet succumbed to the pressure of purchasing our two-year-olds iPhones, so the Sat Nav is not really useful for keeping track of small children – mums and dads will have to stick to ‘kiddy leashes’ and the good old fashioned ‘eyes in the back of head’ technique.
But the app is great for older kids who are out and about.
Written by: Andrea Zanin
Written by: Andrea Zanin